Cardiomyopathy is cardiac condition in which the normal muscular function of the myocardium has been altered by a variety of etiologies. Atherosclerotic coronary artery disease is the most common cause of cardiomyopathy in North America and Europe. Idiopathic cardiomyopathy is the second most common cause, although this may partially include undiagnosed etiologies such as viral infection, drug ...

who presented at an A&E department with acute dyspnea and showed that a BNP > 100 pg/mL had a sensitivity of 90% and a specificity of 70% in differentiating dyspnea of cardiac origin from that of other causes. The diagnostic accuracy rose from 74 to 81% when BNP levels were added to clinical criteria7. The diagnostic power of BNP was greater than that of either the Framingham criteria or the Na...

The mechanisms mediating the activation of cardiac gene expression during pressure overload are not fully understood. We examined whether angiotensin II-induced activation of ventricular gene expression is related to blood pressure and ventricular mass or requires other factors by infusing angiotensin II in sham-operated and adrenalectomized rats. In sham-operated rats, angiotensin II (33 micro...

BACKGROUND Increased arterial stiffness and higher plasma natriuretic peptide and homocysteine levels are associated with elevated risk for cardiovascular disease. Little is known about the relations of natriuretic peptides and homocysteine to arterial wall stiffness in the community. METHODS AND RESULTS We assessed the relations of plasma N-terminal atrial natriuretic peptide, B-type natriur...

      Kawasaki disease (KD) is characterized as the leading cause of acquired cardiac disease in children. Accurate and timely diagnosis of KD is of high importance for preventing its cardiac complications. However, diagnosis merely based on clinical findings has a number of challenges and, limitations. Therefore, researchers are investigating to find more object...

Brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) is used as a marker of cardiac dysfunction to predict heart failure mortality. The significance of the prognostic ability of BNP for liver cirrhosis remains unknown, although the levels of BNP seen in cirrhosis are high. We aimed to determine whether the BNP level is related to the stage of cirrhosis and could serve as a prognostic marker of cirrhosis (predict th...

23 The reported effects of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) on sympathetic nerve activity (SNA) 24 are variable, dependent on concomitant hemodynamic actions and likely to be regionally 25 differentiated. There are few reports of the effect of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) on SNA 26 and none have measured cardiac SNA (CSNA) by direct microneurography. 27 We measured the effects of low dose A...

Measured by Elecsys 2010 Assay in a Trial of Hormoneguided Treatment for Heart Failure, Richard W. Troughton, Christopher M. Frampton, Timothy G. Yandle, Eric A. Espiner, Gary Nicholls, and Mark Richards (Christchurch Cardioendocrine Research Group, Christchurch School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Christchurch, 8001 New Zealand; * address correspondence to this author at: Department of Medi...

A rteries stiffen with age, largely as a consequence of structural alteration of the collagen and elastin content of the artery wall. Circulating B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), secreted predominantly from the heart, also increases with age, probably as a consequence of left ventricular wall stress induced by a rise in impedance to ejection or structural changes in the myocardium including ag...

Correspondence to: Professor Paulo M Bettencourt, Unidade Cuidados Intermédios Medicina, Hospital S Joaõ, Alameda Hernani Monteiro, 4200 Porto, Portugal; pbettfer@ esoterica.pt _________________________ T he identification of natriuretic peptides led to an explosion of basic and clinical investigations to clarify their physiology, pathophysiologic role in heart failure, and clinical usefulness....